Marriage, Divorce

and remarriage
Book A 3.2.1, 3.2.6
Book B 1.2.1
Nature of Sexual Relationship?
 Unitive
• it unites a married
Conjugal couple
/Marital [when 2 become 1]
• strengthens a
- Happen within marriage marriage in self-giving Procreative
love, joy and pleasure • Open to having
- between one man and
one woman (heterosexual) children
who are married to each • Create a family
other
An exclusive relationship
(keep faithful to each other)

fulfill God's purpose

of a Christian family
bringing up children
in the Christian faith
 What are the Catholic teaching about
marriage?
• established by God when he created mankind at
the beginning of time
 “The Lord God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone. I will
make him a helpmate.’” (Gen 2:18)

woman and man are partners

sharing the same human nature and dignity
meant to live together in union of love
 What are the Catholic teaching about
marriage?
• a covenant between a baptised man and woman
involves not only the bride and groom but also God himself
together they form an intimate communion of life and love

Covenant Contract
Exchange of goods/
Exchange of persons services

Eternal (Unbreakable)
Voidable
 Life-long (with consequences)
commitment
 A Marriage of
three:
Husband, Wife and God

The closer your relationship is

with God, the closer your
relationship will be with your
spouse
 What are the Catholic teaching about
marriage?
• a sacrament Jesus

Cannot be broken by human

 "What God has joined together, that no one separate.” (Mark 10:9)
Church
Signifies the union of Christ and the Church through the
loving union of Husband and Wife
Gives spouses the grace to:

strengthens
their
indissoluble sa
the of unity on ncti Groom
ts ve t fie Bride
c h
et e s t
rfe lo ses er w he
pe man pou na ay m
l li to
hu he s fe
t
 What are the Catholic teaching about
marriage?
• a heterosexual union
i.e. union between a man and a woman (but no other combination)
Couple can enjoy unitive sex in the way God intended
Be faithful to each other
 What are the Catholic teaching about
marriage?
• a vocation, commissioned to build a
Christian home (“Domestic church”)
(refer to slide 12)

 Preserve the society (Fruitful)

 Teach the next generation about
catholic faith

• “God bless them, and God said to them, ‘Be Fruitful and
multiply and fill the earth and subdue it;” (Gen 1:30)
 Family – a call to become a domestic church
The Holy Family
Marriage  a divine blessing that comes with great responsibility:

• Married couple are the chosen co-workers of God, in His

work of love and commissioned to build a Christian
Home:
 a place (for their children) to receive the first proclamation of
the faith
 a community of prayers and grace
 a school of human virtues and of Christian charity Christian Family
Family – a call to become a domestic church

The Holy Family Christian Family

 “Twofold end of marriage"
• the good of the spouses (unitive love) and the transmission of life (procreation)

Procr
Unitiv
eativ
e
e

" The conjugal (marital) love of man and woman thus stands under the twofold obligation of fidelity
and fecundity ( = fruitfulness and fertility)."
(CCC)

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/589229b0a5790a8a5c08e4b0/t/5d1bef120cf3ea0001c9614d/1562111764429/MATRIMONY.pdf
 Faithfulness

Fruitfulness
Covenant
Features
of
Marriage

Heterosexual Permanence
What does a Catholic marriage require?
The spouses are free to marry

They freely exchange their consent

They have intention to marry for life

(companionship), to be faithful to one
another(faithfulness), and be open to children

Their consent is given the presence of two witnesses

and before a properly authorised Church minister
 The spouses are free to marry
• Vows preventing marriage
Previous vow of marriage
Vow of celibacy or chastity (religious people like priests, monk, nun, sister
etc…)
 Atheist and Humanist attitude towards
Marriage
• Marriage is a good thing when raising a family
• They believed that sexual relations are based on respect and trust
(with exclusive sexual partner)
• sex and marriage are up to individual decision
 Atheist and Humanist attitude towards
Marriage
Most cohabiting couples would like to get married at some points
because marriage provides:
• A stable legal and financial backing for a relationship
• More social acceptance of the relationship
• More stable home for a family ( esp. when considering to bear a child)
• Public ritual to declare and celebrate the couple’s love
 Catholic response to non-religious attitudes to
marriage and cohabitation
1. Any non-marital sexual acts is against God
• 6th commandment – Do not commit adultery

• “Sexual act must always take place exclusively within marriage…Human love does not tolerate trial marriages, it
demands a total and definitive gift of persons to one another.” (CCC 2390-91)

2. Cohabitation is judged to be against God’s will

• “Living together and having sexual relations before marriage can never be reconciled with what God
expects of us.”

3. Couples who cohabitates, supported by studies, have shown a higher rates of

divorce and a poorer quality of marital relationship than those who do not.
Divorce and remarriage
 X Promiscuity/Adultery
Faithfulness X Sex outside marriage

Fruitfulness
Covenant
Features
of
Marriage

X Same-sex Heterosexual Permanence X Divorce

marriage X Remarriage
 Divorce
Catholic teachings
The Catholic Church has great respect for the ability of a person to keep a promise and to bind
himself in lifelong fidelity.

• Marriage is eternal (covenant made with God in a sacrament), i.e., cannot be broken by
any will of humans.

‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife,
and the two will become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh.”
(Mark 10:7 -9)

“Thus the marriage bond has been established by God himself in such a way that
a marriage concluded and consummated between baptized persons can never
be dissolved.” (CCC 1640)
 Divorce
Catholic teachings

• Divorce is immoral because it introduces disorder into the family and into
society
• e.g. Child custody; Children might not see their parents regularly, etc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iD349oISupA
 Divorce
Catholic teaching –
Conditions when religious marriage can be dissolved
Marriage between baptised Catholics can be religious dissolved if:

1. the partner has died

2. the marriage is annulled

Annulment
= A church tribunal declares that a marriage, previously thought to be
valid, fell short of at least one essential marital element.)
 Catholic teachings - annulment
• Local bishop is the final judge of the annulment process
• Cases of annulment:
• Marriage was never consummated (sex)

• Marriage was not a true Christian marriage as:

• one of the partners was not baptised

• One of the couple was not fully aware of what marriage meant e.g. too young

• One of the couple have not been willing to fully participate in the marriage, and willing to have children
or being forced into marriage
• One of the couple concealed important things such as serious contagious disease, had children from a
previous relationship
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45fYgeMv0tY
 Divorce
Catholic teaching - Conditions when legal separation is allowed
Catholic Church allow legal separation of
spouses / civil divorce if they have the following
situations :
1. Impossible to live together
2. Separation ensure the proper care of the children
3. Separation ensure the safety and security of a
married partner
 however, the couple is still married in the eyes of
God and the church (as sacrament cannot be broke by
human)
 thus, cannot remarry
 Divorce
Non-Catholic Christians teachings/attitude
Non-Catholic Christians allow divorce because:
1. Jesus allowed divorce for a partner’s adultery in the Bible.
• “Any men who divorces his wife for any cause, other than her unfaithfulness,
commits adultery if he marries some other woman.” (Mt 19:9)
• Thus, Divorce is OK if the reasons for it are sufficiently severe

2. Support “Lesser of the 2 evils”

• At situations when the effect (harm) of not divorce > the evil of divorce itself  Divorce is OK
 Divorce
Non-Catholic Christians teachings/attitude

3. Better to divorce than lived in hatred and quarrel all the time

4. They believed that forgiveness from God and repentance gives

them a new chance to enter another marriage as long as they
promised to make it work for this time.
*Note: As divorce is allowed, they do not have such thing as annulment.
 Remarriage
Catholic teaching
Remarriage is not allowed in Catholicism because:

1. Re-marriage is considered as committing adultery, which against

the 6th commandment
• Since divorce is impossible (as The Church teaches that marriage is eternal and
legal divorce is not acknowledged), remarrying another person leads to
polygamy ( more than 1 spouse) or bigamy  committing sins
 Remarriage
Catholic teaching
2. Remarried Catholics are not allowed to take communion at Masses
until they end their remarriage relationship.

3. Remarriage is not allowed unless the first marriage has been ended
by the death of a spouse or annulment.
 Remarriage
Non-Catholic Christians teachings/attitude
They believed remarriage is acceptable because:

1. People who got divorced will become single (not bounded by

sacrament) and is free to enter another marriage (not sinful)
• Conditions:
Talk to pastors to show their repentance for the failure and promise this time the marriage
will be for life.
 Atheist and Humanist attitudes
to Divorce and Remarriage
Since marriage, to them, is just a purely human and legal institution, both
divorce and remarriage is allowed because:

1. All married couples should have right to divorce if the marriage failed.
• When divorce, need to make sure:
Spouses are treated equally in the financial arrangements

Children should be well provided

2. Any divorced person should be treated as a single person have right to

remarry
 Catholic responses to non-Catholic
responses to divorce and remarriage

1. Catholics reject the non-Catholic Christians attitude and believed

that they are responsible for the breakdown of family life in
modern society

2. However, as indicated by Pope Francis, the Church should adopt a

more loving approach to Catholics who have divorced and
remarried.